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Jewish Gangsters vs. Nazis in America
(Times of Israel) Renee Ghert-Zand - In 1938, New York judge Nathan D. Perlman asked Jewish organized crime boss Meyer Lansky to break up meetings of the pro-Nazi German American Bund. "I want you to do anything but kill them," Perlman warned. Prominent rabbi Stephen S. Wise echoed the judge's sentiment. So Lansky told his associates they could "marinate" but not "ice" those who showed up at Bund meetings, rallies and marches, where speakers spewed Jew-hatred. Baseball bats and clubs were fair game, but guns and ice picks were out of bounds. A new book, Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America, by Michael Benson, tells the story of how Perlman secretly directed an army led by Jewish gangsters across the U.S. in a successful yearlong campaign to squelch two key American Nazi organizations, the Bund and the Silver Legion (better known as the Silver Shirts). Some 100 anti-Semitic groups operated in the U.S. in the Depression era. In Chicago, Perlman reached out to Al Capone's associate Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik. In New Jersey, Perlman relied on mob boss Abner "Longie" Zwillman. Many of the Silver Shirts lived in Minnesota, where Davie "The Jew" Berman, who ran the gambling scene in Minneapolis, was Perlman's man. In Los Angeles, Perlman called on Ben "Bugsy" Siegel and Mickey Cohen to take care of business. By 1939, the Jewish gangsters had pounded enough Nazis to ensure that a significant number quit attending meetings. Their actions also emboldened ordinary Jews to protest and take action. "It wasn't the numbers [of American Nazis] that really upset Judge Perlman as much as it was the brazen way they behaved. It never occurred to them that they would encounter resistance. They assumed Jews were soft and would be afraid to fight back," Benson said.